Skyy Vodka, of course!

I've also been fascinated by the ad campaign that Skyy vodka runs. You get a lot of what you would expect from an alcohol advertisement - scantily clad women and the promise of sexual prowess if you drink this liquor. However, I am always drawn to the ads because of their bright colors and the way in which they play with texture. The ad that I chose to analyze is as ad for Skyy's regular, unflavored vodka. This ad captured my attention in an issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. The image depicts a man and a woman encapsulated in a bubble floating on the surface of a perfect aqua swimming pool. The water looks very inviting and refreshing. The pool deck and seating is all a pristene white and there is not a cloud in the sky. The whole poolside setting is very luxurious. In the foreground, we see a martini shaker and a bottle of Skyy vodka sitting on a sleek, white table. The man is wearing a dishelved black suit with his shirt unbutton a few buttons and the woman has on a very revealing white dress with the back cut out and slits up above her thighs. Both people are incredibly attractive and have a martini in their hands. They have their arms around eachother as they balance in this bubble floating on the pool's surface. This text lends itself very well to both a gender based and a class based critique.

First, the picture clearly holds sex appeal and associates the drinking of the product with sexual success and dominance. Both the man and the woman have martinis in their hands and are embracing eachother. They are both very attractive and are wearing dishelved clothing, which suggests sex. The advertiser wants the consumer to think that everyone he or she drinks Skky vodka, he or she will hook up with someone as attractive as the people in the ad. This idea is absurd alone, not to mention the fact that the sex will occur in a giant bubble above a swimming pool, as the ad suggests. The also objectifies the woman in the picture, revealing that this ad has a specific audience, mainly those who objectify women. While both the man and the woman are very attractive, the woman is barely wearing a dress that reveals a large amount of skin, while the man is fully clothed in a suit.

In addition to analyzing this text through a lens of gender, we can also look at it as stemming from a discourse of class. The whole setting of the pool suggests upper class luxury. The pool is pristene, the pool desk is a crisp white color, and the design of the furniture is modern and clean. This advertiser wants the consumer to associate Skky vodka with luxury. The ad suggests that drinking this product will make you part of the upper class with access to a pool like the one in the picture. This is not the neighborhood pool with five year olds running around, but your private pool where you can make out with the woman/man of your dreams.